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Now the BBC claims that another list of over 30,000 email
addresses and passwords is circulating, which contains the details for
Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, AOL, Comcast and Earthlink accounts.

The latest list was posted on Pastebin.com, the
same website to which the Hotmail list was originally uploaded.

How to avoid being defrauded

- Change your passwords every 90 days

- Use different passwords for various internet log-ins

- Do not open unsolicited email attachments and links

The
site, which is intended for web developers to share code, has since
been taken down for maintenance.

Hotmail's list of users was posted anonymously on to Pastebin.com on
October 1. The list was reported by technology blog Neowin.

It is feared that the information could be used by fraudsters to
access email accounts and steal personal information such as credit
card account details.

A spokesman for Google, which runs Gmail, said: 'We recently became aware of an industry-wide phishing scheme through
which hackers gained user credentials for web-based mail accounts
including Gmail account.

Breach: Around 10,000 Hotmail passwords were obtained by hackers using the same 'phishing' scam that has now spread to other email services

'As soon
as we learned of the attack, we forced password resets on the affected
accounts. We will continue to force password resets on additional
accounts when we become aware of them.'

The firm stressed that the scam was 'not a breach of Gmail security' but rather 'a scam to get users to give away their personal information to hackers'.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: 'We advise
people to take a commonsense approach and change their password.

'It is
early days but we have yet to receive reports of fraud linked to this
breach.'

A Microsoft spokesman added: 'We are aware that some Windows
Live Hotmail customers' credentials were acquired illegally and exposed
on a website.

'Upon learning of the issue, we immediately
requested that the credentials be removed and launched an investigation
to determine the impact to customers.

'We are working diligently to help customers regain control of their accounts.'

Some of the accounts appear to be old, unused or fake. Other addresses on the list include Comcast and Earthlink accounts.

A spokesperson for Yahoo urged consumers to 'take measures to secure their
accounts whenever possible, including changing their passwords'.